MOSCOW: The primary Russian official delegation to go to Syria because the toppling of long-term Moscow ally Bashar al-Assad has arrived in Damascus, Russian information companies reported on Tuesday (Jan 28).
The go to comes with Moscow eager to safe the destiny of two navy bases there and after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Moscow had suffered a strategic “defeat” within the Center East following the autumn of Assad.
The Russian delegation attributable to meet the brand new management of the war-ravaged nation included deputy overseas minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who can be Putin’s particular envoy on the Center East and Africa, in addition to Alexander Lavrentyev, the president’s particular envoy on Syria, the RIA Novosti company reported.
It stated it was “the primary go to by Russian officers to Damascus” since Assad fled in December within the face of a lightning insurgent advance throughout the nation.
Moscow was one in every of Assad’s key backers, intervening in Syria’s civil warfare in 2015 in his favour.
He and his household fled to Russia after his ouster by Turkish-backed rebels previously affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Russia is now searching for to safe the destiny of its naval base in Tartus and its air base at Khmeimim — each on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and Moscow’s solely navy outposts outdoors the previous Soviet Union — with the brand new Syrian authorities.
A report by RT Arabic, a Russian state-controlled channel, stated the delegation is ready to satisfy Syria’s new chief Ahmed al-Sharaa, International Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and different officers.
Russia’s Bogdanov was a diplomat in Syria within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties and speaks Arabic, in accordance with the overseas ministry web site. Lavrentyev took half in earlier negotiations with Assad.
Sharaa leads an Islamist group – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – that’s banned in Russia as a “terrorist” organisation.
The organisation is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria department however has extra just lately adopted a extra average tone.
RT Arabic reported that Bogdanov described the go to as aimed toward strengthening historic ties based mostly on shared pursuits, and underlined Russia’s hopes for Syrian unity and independence.
